Arizona, Day 3:

SLIDE ROCK SWIMMING ...

We thought the house in Sedona had a pool but it ended up just having a hot tub.  It was advertised that there was a community pool near by and there was but because of COVID, it was closed.  There was one place that I had on our list of "to do's" in Sedona and it was called Slide Rock Swimming.  The day before, we drove to Slide Rock but the parking lot was full.  Because of COVID, they were limiting the amount of people going in.  We really wanted to do this and were told to come back at 7 AM the next morning to be sure to get in.

We did just that!  Remember, the time zone was different than what we were used to and it was actually 10 AM in our minds.  We loaded up our water bottles once again, grabbed some towels and sunblock and off we went!

When we walked into this valley of huge red mountains all around us and a rushing, gushing stream of water running through the middle, we were in awe!!!!  It was so beautiful!!!!

My computer is not letting me post pictures in the order I download them, so here goes for a scattered  blog with photos.


We arrived with being one of the first ones there!  It was breath taking!!!!  The view was just so gorgeous!  As time went by, more people joined the fun and when we saw the first cliff jump, I did actually say to myself that I'm going to do that!  Then an older lady (she looked like in her upper 60s) jumped off and then I was convinced I would jump.

This was near the top of the rocks where the water was rushing and the reason the place is called Slid Rock Swimming is because that's exactly what you do.  You slide down the rocks and then swim and then slide down more rocks and you finally get to the finishing area.

We were surrounded by huge rocks and the kids were all about climbing them of course.

When Ashlyn went down the first part of the swimming area, she needed help getting to the side.

 See how tiny they are compared to them rocks!!!!!

I just stood at this spot and looked for awhile!  It was so beautiful!

 Mike and I walked hand in hand to the cliff and I was really gonna do this!  I was gonna jump.  Mike wanted to jump together but I said for him to go first.

And there I stood.  The longer I stood there, the more my knees started to shake.  Mike was already out of the water and cheering me to jump.

Mike and Austin went down the slide rock and they were woashing right along.  It was almost scary because of the swift water.  And the rocks hurt your butt!!!!!

We had such a good day here and this was at 7:30 AM before the sun was up over the mountains.

Ashlyn was all about the jump too until she looked down the 10-12 foot jump.

And I was still freaking out.  I just couldn't take the plunge.

Instead, I sat with the littles and watched everyone else jump.

Then I decided to go down to the next lower level.  Do you see it?  I didn't either really so I backed up.

 Mike jumped.  Hadassah jumped.  Matthew jumped.

 The water was really, really cold but the weather was really, really hot so it was such a fun treat to be in the water.  The rocks were super slippery and I said that they could have also named it "Slippery Rock Swimming".  You had to watch your step or you would wipe out.  We know because we did!!!!

 I spy Mike!!!!

I did not jump the cliff jump but I did slide the rocks.  That was changeling but fun.  Our butts got so sore and Ashlyn actually had a bruise from all the rock slideing.

 She focused and then jumped!

Austin didn't really like the rushing water and the rocks were way too slippery for him to walk along by himself but he did love the rocks and high dry cliffs.

I now spy Austin!

She jumped!!!!!

She's brave.  Braver than me.

Matthew helped Austin swim in the freezing water.

We totally loved this activity in Sedona!!!!

It was 10 AM and we were already hungry for lunch and tired.  We felt like we had a day of play already done.  (Time change)

We left at lunch time and grabbed Chiptole on the way back to the house.  Showers and relaxation was great in the hottest part of the day!

We ended up going back to town later that night and getting more ice cream.

We love Sedona!!!!

Arizona Day 2:

Arizona is beautiful and one way to see lots is to book a guided tour.  We are not the hiking kind of family by nature, so I booked a tour with Pink Jeep Tour for our first full day in Sedona.  Mornings seemed really long because we were used to our time zone.  Sedona is three hours ahead of us, so 8:00 AM was actually 5 AM in Sedona.  We were waking up early and ready for bed early.  We grabbed some breakfast at the house (usually pancakes, toast, eggs or cereal).  We always filled up the water bottles because of the heat and headed out for the adventure.

I prayed that our tour guide would be fun and not strict about wearing masks.  Arizona has masks mandatory right now because of COVID-19.  Our tour guide was a trip and only asked that we wear masks until we were out of the city limits and on the back trails.  The two hour tour had us driving over huge rocks and seeing some massive sights!!!! 

Even in the heat, this girl thought she should wear a mask most of the time.  Sigh.

Just over the ledge ... it was so far down!

We got a chance to get out of the Jeep and explore.

This was me pretty much as much as possible ... holding on to Austin's hand.  All he wanted to do was run and jump and had no fears of falling.

 

 

 Hadassah and Austin are so cute together!  They love each other and she adores him!

 This trip was so fun doing it with the love of my life!!!!!

 

 The tour guide kept showing us pine needles and telling us stories about the land.  We tried Agave from the many plants growing there.  It was sweet like honey.  He did a really good job at giving us a great ride.  There were a few times when we were lifted off of our seats from the fast and bumpy cliff rides.

After the jeep tour, we went back to the house and relaxed inside during the hottest part of the day.  We found our favorite little, down town, western, hamburger joint called The Cowboy Club.  The cactus fries and hamburgers were a hit!!!!!

 Hadassah spied a small shop just next door to the restaurant with homemade ice cream.  Yum, Yum ... we visited this place a few times.

Matthew had a birthday while we were in Sedona!  Turning 15 was an adventurous day for him and the waitress treated him with a candle and dessert at the Cowboy Club.  Matthew is growing tall, taller than all of us by now.  He loves his summer job at the shop and really is the best roofer there!  Going back to school is bringing mixed emotions because he loves his friends at school and misses them but doesn't mind being away from the books and studies.  He is such a cool kid and is rocking his golf scores!  He beat his dad yesterday in golf with a score of 78!  He's really good at golf and is thriving with this sport.  So much that he didn't play any baseball this summer but just focused more on golf.  Thanks Matthew for being such a good big brother and loving your family so much!  We love you!  Happy birthday!

These two were all about hanging out and eating popcorn at night!

A family trip to Arizona!!! Day 1:

We've been planning a trip to Arizona since February!!!  I'm not a trip planner by nature.  I don't usually dream up where to go next in our travels.  Both Mike and I are the type to do reruns if we like it.  Florida has been a vacation spot for me as a kid.  We took many trips to Florida since we got married back 19 years ago!  We ventured out on some other anniversary trips (Mike likes cities and high buildings, so we visited many different cities over the years) but always kept the children back home.  Then we traveled did something extra special around our 15th anniversary and went to Belize and loved it SO MUCH!!!!!  We knew after our five day stay there that we would love to bring the kids to that beautiful country!  It took some work to get passports and as much as I would have loved to keep it all a secret, we told the kids to pack their bags and get excited for Belize!  We enjoyed Ambergris Island for a full week and we all loved it to the max!!!!!

Now where?  We got a taste of traveling with our family!  We did Florida again a few times and going to familiar places is always so much fun for us!  But traveling to Arizona has been a dream and I got started at looking at some vacation homes and options back when it was still snowing!  Then COVID-19 came about and we were not sure if the trip was going to happen in 2020?  I researched and everything that I had on our bucket list, except for one, was open and inviting us to come!

Tickets were purchased for our flight to Phoenix, Arizona, on July 13, 2020.  We were excited to visit the west for the very first time!

We drove to Baltimore Washington Airport early Monday morning.  Sarah Ebersol rode along with us and then drove the Yukon back home.  She is also going to pick us up on our return date!  Ginger went to Sadies again!  It's where she always goes when we leave home for getaways!  We grabbed our luggage, our face masks that are mandatory right now and some cash and boarded our plane!  Our direct flight got us to Phoenix before lunch.  The time change has been affecting us a bit because we are used to Eastern Standard Time.  Back tracking three hours makes for a long morning!  :)  Our flight went well!  The kids did good on the four hour flight but when we stepped out of the airport, we got blasted with the heat of the west!  It was 111 degrees in Phoenix when we arrived!  That's hot!  We rented a nice Subarban from Turo and off to our first vacation home we drove!  2 1/2 hours later, we pulled into the drive way of a beautiful home tucked in the red mountains of Sedona, Arizona!

The planes were not full but they were freezing cold!

He always wants the window seat.

Ashlyn loves word searches so we made our own using words and themes of Arizona.

One thing that I was NOT prepared for were the heights!  They seemed to follow us wherever we went.  I never experienced a real fear of heights until this trip.  I knew I didn't like being up off the ground high but this took it to a whole new level!  There were CLIFFS and LEDGES everywhere I looked!  But somehow the view was absolutely gorgeous!  I loved the red mountains and the Sedona towns!  I did have to close my eyes and say a prayer at times when we were rounding the Sedona bends!  One open road leads to another open road .... all with the biggest drop offs right beside me.

The views from our home in Sedona were so beautiful right from the living room!!!!  We had a huge window displaying beautiful mountains!

Sedona was wonderful!  The home we rented from VRBO was clean and just perfect for us.  Minus the pool.  I thought the house had a pool but only a community pool was available.  But because of coronavirus, that was closed.  The kids didn't seem to mind too much.  We did have a hot tub that they used in the evening but even then it was still hot outside!!!!  They turned the hot tub down to 70 but with such high tempts during the day, it was still a "hot" tub. :)

We got settled into our home, grabbed some groceries that happened to just be down the street and then toured the town of Sedona for the first time.  One thing that we loved about the house was that it was so central to everything we wanted to do!  Groceries and Starbucks were a stroll away.  The small towns surrounded us with gorgeous red mountains and all the best restaurants!  It was so lovely!!!!

Sedona already stole our hearts!